Method and System for Load Balancing of Large File Transfers on a Wireless Network

ABSTRACT

A method and system identifies a data file for transfer to a user. The invention also detects the movement of the user device from which the data file transfer was made and calculates a projected path for movement of the user device. Based on the projected path of movement, the sections of the requested data file are transferred in parallel to node areas where the user device is projected to move according to the projected path. As the user enters a node area, the section of the data file downloaded to that node area is locally transferred to the user device and thereby substantially reducing download time of a large data file.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method and system that balances the amountof data being transmitted over cellular networks which will decrease theamount of bandwidth required to perform data transmissions and willoptimize the average time to transmit large date files. In particular,this invention relates to a method and system for optimizing thetransfer of large files to a receiving device by balancing thetransmission loads of nodes on a wireless network such that transmissiontimes for file transfers remains at an optimal average across all nodeson the network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Cellular telephones are an integral part of society today. A substantialnumber of people throughout the world have and use cellular telephones.For many people, the cellular telephone is their primary means ofcommunicating, and of receiving and sending information. Individuals usecellular telephones for personal business and also in the workenvironment to conduct business matters. Cellular telephones have becomea convenient means to take pictures, record events and save and retaininformation. As technological advancements with regards to the cellulartelephone occur, more features are available on the cellular telephone.People easily find new uses for the cellular telephone based on the newfeatures. Many consumers pre-order the latest cellular telephone devicesand often, there are long lines of consumer waiting to be the first tohave the new devices with the latest technology.

Currently, with all of the new technical developments and the expandeduses for small mobile electronic devices, the cellular telephoneindustry is going through a major transition. Most of the original usageof cellular phones was voice usage. People used cellular phones toconduct verbal communication. A main type of cellular phone was the“feature” phone. These earlier phones did not have big screens and manyof the current features and they were used primarily to make telephonecalls. Today, there is the ‘smart’ phone. The current cellular phonedevices have many more features than original cellular phones. As aresult, people are finding more uses for these phones. Further, wherethe primary use of original cellular phones was voice, today people areusing their cellular phone devices to transmit data (i.e. text andimages). In fact, usage of cellular phones is becoming more to transmitdata than voice. This shift in usage from voice to data is creating achallenging situation for the cellular phone network providers. Theoriginal design of cellular networks did not anticipate the increasingtransmission of data. The increase in data traffic places a strain onthe cellular network operations. A conventional cellular networkconfiguration 100 shown in FIG. 1 has antennas, radios and logic 102.The area 104 of each antenna (tower) device 102 is referred to the‘Node’. The cellular telephone devices 106 communicate with and throughthe cellular network through the antennas in the specific Node areas.Each node area also has a server computing device 108. In the cellularnetwork 100, these server devices 108 communicate with a Core Radio NodeController (RNC) 110. One RNC 110 may have connected to it a hundredNodes 104. The connection between the Node B and RNC can be through amicrowave link 112. Next the RNC can further connect to the corenetwork. The core network can also have several RNCs connected to it.Because these communication links 110 between the RNC and the nodes andeven a core network are microwave links, there is a limited amount ofbandwidth available to transmit information across these microwavelinks. These communication links have plenty of bandwidth to transmitvoice communications. However, with the increased use of data-drivenapplications such as browsing the web, texting and watching videos viatheir cellular phones, the bandwidth on these microwave links isapproaching the capacity of use.

The cellular telephone design and the cellular telephone protocols aredesigned to enable a cell phone user to roam through a cellular network.Referring to FIG. 2, a cellular network 200 is comprised of severallittle cells 202. A user can transparently move from one cell to anothercell. The user is not disturbed as they move between cells. In somelocations, such as metropolitan areas, a cellular phone user can be inone location and can switch cell sites every few seconds and not notice.The cellular network addresses all of the switching from one cell toanother cell for the user.

When a user is on a wireless network, whether it is a cellular telephonedata network or WIFI network, many times towers 102 and access pointsare not being utilized to their full potential. Due to this fact, towerwireless networks remain basically unintelligent. Current technologiesallow users to seamlessly travel from one access point to anotherwithout noticing any interruptions in service activities. However, withregards to downloading large data files interruptions can occur whenmoving from one access point (antenna tower) to another access point.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,697,508 to Hernandez-Mondragon, et al. describes asystem for communication between a mobile node and a communicationsnetwork for use with a communications network having one or morecommunications network nodes. This invention defines a foreign agent andcommunicates with the mobile node in a predefined region. The systemincludes a ghost-foreign agent that advertises a foreign agent so thatthe mobile node is aware of the foreign agent when the mobile node islocated outside the predefined region. The system further includes aghost-mobile node that signals the foreign agent in response to theforeign agent advertising and based upon a predicted future state of themobile node.

U.S. Patent Application Publication number 20100323715 describestechnologies that are generally related to predicting future mobiledevice locations and using the predictive information to optimize mobilecommunications service parameters. Mobile device locations may bepredicted using real-time device location information, destinationinformation, and location history. Predicted location information for agiven device, and possibly other devices as well, may be used to adjustmobile communications service parameters such as handoffs, channelassignment, multipath fading response parameters, data rates,transmission modes, opportunistic scheduling parameters, location-basedservices, and location update rates.

Although these technologies do enhance the communications of electronicdevices, there remains a need for a more seamless communication systemthat can optimize large file transfers while moving through nodes on awireless network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention addresses bandwidth capacity problems whentransferring large files while a user is moving across nodes of awireless network. This invention comprises a method of analyzing thebandwidth capacity of wireless nodes, the moving patterns of end usersinside a wireless node zone to predict when and where the user willtransfer from one wireless node to another wireless node. The method ofthe invention determines the size of the data to be downloaded, thedownload speed, the amount of time and the amount of bandwidth requiredto download data to a wireless device.

The present invention will determine the capacity of the current node ofthe wireless device receiving the data and will determine if thatwireless device is moving to a different node in the network. Inpractice, user movement is detected and a pattern of movement isdetermined. From this determination there is a prediction or projectionof the path of the user. Based on the movement of the user, size of thefile that is being transferred and the transfer rate, the presentinvention can predict the amount of a file that will be transferred to auser while the user is in a certain node area. The present invention canalso determine the download speed of the transfer based on the capacityof the current tower of the user device. Based on the size of the filebeing download, the capacity of the current node receiving thedownloaded file and the capacity of the predicted future node of thedevice, the present invention can adjust downward the download speed ofthe file in the current node and the adjust upward the download speed ofthe file once the user device has moved to the next node which has moreavailable download capacity. By adjusting the download speeds of thefile being transferred, the average download time for the file is thesame. However, because of the reduced download speed in the initialnode, the average download speed is that node remains at an optimallevel.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a cellular network configuration containinga network core, radio node controller (RNC) and multiple Node B areacell sites.

FIG. 2 is a display of several Node B cell sites comprising a network ofadjacent cellular sites, each cell site having an antenna, radio andlogic.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a cellular network configuration containinga network core, radio node controller (RNC) and multiple Node B cellsites with different load demands.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a cellular network configuration showingmovement of cellular devices between node areas.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of the steps in a general implementation of themethod of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of the steps in an alternate implementation ofthe method of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The method and system of the present invention provide a means toprovide seamless transfer of large files across network nodes withoptimal bandwidth usage by balancing the download functions of networknodes. The objective of the present invention is accomplished bydistributing the download functions of devices moving between nodes andthereby reducing load capacity of nodes having heavy usage at aparticular time. Download speeds for devices moving between nodes willbe reduced while the device is in a heavy capacity use node andincreased when the device moves to a node having a lower use capacity.This load balancing process occurs by:

-   -   1) determining the size of a file to be transferred to a user;    -   2) predicting the path of the user;    -   3) determining the current load at each node in the network; and    -   4) determining whether load balancing can occur based on the        movement of the user and the current load of nodes in user's        predicted path.        When the determination is that load balancing can occur, the        download speed of the file to the user device is reduced when        the user is in a load capacity node area. Reducing the download        speed of this user enables the download speed of another user in        that same node area to increase. When the user moves to the node        area with less use, the download speed of the file to the user        will increase such that the total time to download a file is        optimized. The increased download speed in the second node        compensates for the slower download speed in the first node such        that the total download is optimal.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a cellular network configuration containinga network core, radio node controller (RNC) and multiple Node B cellsites with different load demands. This configuration shows three nodeareas with different use loads. As shown, Area 2 currently has fivedownloads from five devices 306, while Area 1 and Area 3 each only havetwo current downloads. As a result of the different load usages,downloads in Area 2 require more bandwidth and will generally downloadat slower speeds because of the greater demand. Each Area generally hasan average download speed. When the use increases, the average speed canreduce for each download to simultaneously download data to each device.

FIG. 4 illustrates a cellular network configuration when devices in Area2 are moving though that area and possibility into other area. As shown,when devices 306 from Area 2 move into Area 1 and Area 3 the downloadtimes for devices in Area 2 can increase because of the reduced capacityin Area 2.

Referring to FIG. 5, In the method of the invention, in step 502, thereis a request for data from a mobile device 306. Once a request isreceived step 504 identifies and locates the requested data. The NetworkCore 102 and RNC 110 are components that can perform this function. Instep 506, the invention begins downloading the requested data to therequesting device via the node area of the requesting device. After theinitiation of the downloading process in step 506, step 508 begins todetermine the current load volume at that node tower. As part of thedetermination of the volume at the particular node area, step 510determines if the current volume of use at a node has exceeded athreshold capacity for that node. For example, a threshold capacitycould be 90 percent use of the capacity. Once the capacity reaches 90percent, the node has reached the threshold capacity. This thresholdcapacity is an arbitrary number that can be set for any particularsystem or any particular node area in a system. This threshold numberserves as one of the markers to initiate load balancing activities ofthe present invention. If the determination in step 510 is that thecapacity is below the threshold capacity, then the process goes into amonitoring state in step 512.

Referring back to step 510, if the determination is that the usecapacity at the specific node has reached the threshold capacity, thenthe process moves to step 514 which attempts to detect movement ofdevices receiving data at the specific node area. In this step, themethod can monitor each device in the specific area that is receivingdata and determine the size of the data that the device is receiving andthe amount of data that the device has yet to receive. The objective atthis point is to determine which devices may be moving to other nodeareas that are below their threshold capacity. Devices receiving datathat are moving to other nodes that are below their threshold capacitymay be candidates for load balancing. When step 514 detects the movementof a device receiving data, step 516 projects the path of futuremovement for that device. As part of the process of projecting the pathof future movement of the device, step 518 determines whether the futuremovement of the device will take the device out of the current node areaand into a different node area. If the determination is that theprojected movement of the device will not take the device out of thecurrent node area, then that device is not a likely candidate for theload balancing of the present invention. In this event, the method wouldreturn to the monitoring step 512.

Referring to step 518, when the determination is that the projectedmovement of the device will take the device out of the current nodearea, step 520 calculates a total download time for data to that device.This initial download calculation time is based on the size of the datadownload and the standard (average) download speed at the current nodezone. The standard speed is the download speed at the node area under anormal load capacity. After the calculation of the total download time,step 522 calculates a reduced download time at the current node zone andan increased download time at the projected new node zone such that thetotal download would be the same. After the calculations of the reducedand increased download speeds, step 524 adjusts the speed of thedownload to the specific device. In practice, the initial reduction inthe download speed of the specific device that will be moving to anothernode zone will facilitate the increase of download speed(s) of otherdevices in the high capacity node area.

FIG. 6 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the method of the presentinvention. As with the method in FIG. 5, steps 602 and 604 receive adata download request from a device and identify and locate therequested data for download. Step 606 identifies the requesting device.This identification function can also be part of 602. In step 608, thereis a determination of the area tower through which the specific devicemade the data download request. Step 610 determines the current loadvolume at that node tower where the requesting device is located. Step612 begins the load balancing function of the method of the presentinvention. This step, 612, detects movement of devices receivingdownloads at the current node area. When device movement is detected,step 614 projects the future movement of the device. Step 616 nextdetermines whether any detected device movement takes the device outsideof the current node area. When the determination is that the movementtakes a device outside of the current node area and into an identifiednew node area, step 618 determines the current load at the newlyidentified node area. Based on the current load of the newly identifiednode area, step 620 determines whether load balancing can be implementedfor a particular device. When the determination is that load sharing canbe implemented for a particular device, step 622 calculates the totaldownload time for the device based on the standard download speed at thecurrent node area. After calculation of the total download time,calculation of a reduced download speed at the current node area and theincreased download speed at the newly identified area is completed. Instep 624, the newly calculated download speeds are implemented.

It is important to note that while the present invention has beendescribed in the context of a fully functioning cellular network system,those skilled in the art will appreciate that the components andprocesses of the present invention are capable of being distributed inthe form of instructions in a computer readable storage medium and avariety of other forms, regardless of the particular type of medium usedto carry out the distribution. The method of this invention providessignificant advantages over the current art. The invention has beendescribed in connection with its preferred embodiments. However, it isnot limited thereto. Changes, variations and modifications to the basicdesign may be made without departing from the inventive concepts in thisinvention. In addition, these changes, variations and modificationswould be obvious to those skilled in the art having the benefit of theforegoing teachings. All such changes, variations and modifications areintended to be within the scope of this invention.

We claim:
 1. A system for optimizing large file transfers while movingthrough nodes on a wireless network comprising: an electronic mobilecellular device capable of receiving and transmitting voice and datainformation; one or more network devices each device having antenna andcommunication logic and being capable of establishing a communicationlink said electronic mobile cellular devices and each device having acache memory for storing data for transmission to said electronic mobilecellular devices; and a network core device capable of gathering,storing and transmitting requested data to an electronic mobile cellulardevices, said network core also having the capability to detect movementof an electronic mobile cellular device and calculating a projectedmovement path for the electronic mobile cellular device.
 2. The systemas described in claim 1 further comprising a radio node controller (RNC)which establishes communications between said network core and saidnetwork edge devices.
 6. A method of system for optimizing large filetransfers while moving through nodes on a wireless network comprising:receiving a data request at a network core from a mobile cellulardevice; identifying and locating data of the received data request;determining whether the mobile cellular device making the request ismoving; when the determination is that the mobile cellular device ismoving, projecting a path for which the mobile cellular device willmove; identifying node areas through which the mobile cellular devicewill travel based on the projected path; determining sections of a datafile for download to each identified node area based on the projectedmovement path of the mobile cellular device.